Extra, Extra RED All About It
On View: Thu June 4, 2026 to Sun Aug 2, 2026
Opening Party: Sat June 6, 2026 from 3pm-6pm.
THE POWELL LANE PRESS
All the Art That's Fit to Hang · #Art4Everyone
VOL. IV · COLLINGSWOOD, NJ · SUMMER 2026
EXTRA, EXTRA: RED ALL ABOUT IT
Gallery Issues Open Call in the One Color That Refuses to Run on Page Six
By The Powell Lane Team
STOP THE PRESSES. The headline hue is back in circulation, and Powell Lane Arts wants the whole story. RED doesn't whisper — it shouts from the newsstand, the stop sign, the warning label, the bottom line. It's the only color you can be caught in (red-handed), tangled in (red tape), buried in (in the red), and honored by (the carpet rolled out just for you).
RED is never neutral — though it's neither hero nor villain. It's the color we read meaning into: love letters and warning labels, garnets and gunshots, the bridal veil and the brake light, the blush that gives us away and the temper that gives us away too. Passion, power, danger, debt, luck, life — sometimes all in a single breath.
It's the oldest story we've ever filed: red ochre on a cave wall, our species' first headline. And it's our own front-page news — blood, the pulse, the heartbeat that reports for duty whether we like it or not.
So: what's your scoop? We want every shade and every story RED can break — the palest blush-pink, the cheeriest cherry, the boldest cadmium, the deepest oxblood and crimson and earthen red. No single piece is expected to cover the whole beat. We're just dying to read how you report it.
MORE COVERAGE ON PAGE 2 ▸
┌────────────────────┐
THE ASSIGNMENT
Submissions due: 11:59 PM · Tue, July 21, 2026
On View: Thu, Sept 10 – Sun, Nov 8, 2026
Opening Party: Sat, Sept 12, 2026 · 3–6 PM
Entry fee: $ 27.50
File your story: [JotForm link]
└────────────────────┘
MORE about this Exhibition
Red is the first color on the visible spectrum and arguably the most loaded in human experience. It is love and rage, power and warning, luck and loss, life and danger — often several at once. For Extra, Extra RED All About It, we're seeking work that explores red in any of its dimensions: as a pigment, a feeling, a symbol, a memory, or a force. The sections below map some of the territory. No single piece is expected to cover all of it — we're eager to see how each artist interprets the color and makes it their own.
WORLD & POLITICS — No color carries more political weight, or wears it more contradictorily. Red is the banner of revolution and the brand of the establishment, the flag of communism and, on an American election map, the marker of the right. It is the "Red Scare" and the "red wall," the raised fist and the power tie. It rode into history with the Bolsheviks — Red Army against White — and had already bloomed centuries earlier as the Red Rose of Lancaster facing the White Rose of York across the Wars of the Roses. To paint in red is to invoke allegiance, uprising, bias, and belonging all at once. We're interested in work that reckons with that weight — whether it waves the flag, questions it, or simply notices how much a single color is asked to mean.
HISTORY & DYNASTY — In imperial China, red was the color of luck, joy, and authority, and it has held that post for thousands of years: the walls of the Forbidden City, the vermilion seal pressed beside an emperor's name, the lacquered gate, the lantern strung above a celebration. It is the envelope passed hand to hand at the Lunar New Year and the thread that runs through the zodiac. Long before red meant danger in the West, it meant fortune in the East — a reminder that color has no fixed meaning, only the meanings cultures hand it. Pieces drawing on heritage, ceremony, lineage, or the long memory of a tradition belong here.
SCIENCE & SKY — Red sits at the very edge of human sight — the longest wavelength the eye can catch, the place the visible spectrum begins. One step past it, infrared continues in a register our bodies feel as heat but never see, which makes red the threshold between the seen and the sensed. Turn that gaze upward and red marks wherever the universe is doing something enormous: Mars burning rust-orange, red-giant stars in their final swelling, the redshift of distant galaxies stretching away faster than we can follow. Nearer to hand, the same color is fire, lava, the last hour of a sunset, the turning of an autumn leaf. We welcome work that treats red as physics, as phenomenon, as light itself.
ARTS & PIGMENT — Before red was ever a feeling, it was a substance — and often a precious or perilous one. Red ochre was the first pigment our species reached for, ground from earth and pressed onto cave walls as our oldest act of image-making. Vermilion was conjured from cinnabar, beautiful and quietly toxic. Carmine was wrung from the bodies of crushed cochineal insects; madder was coaxed from a root; cadmium, alizarin, and crimson lake each arrived later with their own chemistry and their own price. Every red on the palette carries a history of who could afford it and what it cost to make. Work that foregrounds the material itself — the pigment, the surface, the made-ness of the mark — finds a natural home here.
STYLE & RITUAL — Red is the color we reserve for the moments that are supposed to matter. It is the Valentine's heart and the lipstick chosen for an occasion; the bride's sari and the single stroke of sindoor; the ruby slippers that carry you home. It is the red string of fate, said to tie two destined people together no matter the distance, and the red carpet rolled out to announce that you, tonight, are the one worth watching. Red is how we signal love, commitment, arrival, and importance. We're drawn to work about desire, celebration, intimacy, and the small private ceremonies as much as the grand public ones.
FOOD — Red is a sense-memory that lands before the first taste. The cherry and the strawberry, the apple polished to a shine, the tomato split open on a cutting board, the pomegranate spilling its seeds, the slow heat of a chili. It is ripeness, sweetness, and warning all at once — the same color that says eat me in a berry says beware in a toadstool. Red is appetite made visible, and the still life has always known it. Bring us the kitchen, the garden, the market stall, the table.
THE MARKETS — Finally, red as a measure of worth — and its exact opposite. It is the garnet and the ruby, the deep mineral glint of riches earned and flaunted. And it is the ink at the bottom of the ledger, the "in the red" that means the opposite of all that wealth. The same color crowns a fortune and records a loss. We'd love to see work that sits in that tension: value and ruin, abundance and want, the costliest pigment in the box used to paint the emptiest pocket.
IMPORTANT DATES
Tue, Jul 21
Submissions due — 11:59 PMFri, Jul 24
Decision emails sent — all submissions will receive a decision by 11:59 PMFri, Jul 31
Participation confirmations due — accepted artists must confirm no later than 12:00 PM.Sun, Aug 2
Consignment Agreements sent to participating artists.Wed, Sep 2 to Sat, Sep 5
Artwork delivery appointments — 30 minutes each, first-come, first-served.
We also accept artwork by shipment during this period.
Information on this is provided to all participating artists upon request.Thu, Sep 10
Exhibition opens — show runs through Sunday, November 8, 2026Sat, Sep 12
Opening Party from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM.Sun, Nov 8 to Sat, Nov 21
Unsold work pickup appointments — first-come, first-served.
WHAT TO KNOW WHEN SUBMITTING…
CHOOSING WORK TO SUBMIT
We recommend submitting three works when possible. Submitting multiple pieces gives us greater flexibility in building a cohesive, dynamic show across a wide range of artists, materials, and styles.
There is no limitation on the age of the work — a piece from 1986 is as welcome as one from 2026. What matters is its connection to the theme.
We also are a small-ish space, and we prioritize showing as many different styles, mediums, genres and artists of work as possible. This means we have a size limitation to maximize this goal.
– Maximum Size: 45" on any single side, including frame.
– Maximum Weight: 50 lbs.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED FOR YOUR SUBMISSION
ABOUT YOU
We’ll ask for your full name, address, phone, email, and other basic information.
We’ll also ask for any website and/or social media.ARTIST STATEMENT (~350 words, first person)
A first-person statement speaks in your own voice — "I make," "I explore," "my work investigates" — not "the artist does." Tell us what you're making, why you're making it, and how your process connects to your ideas.INTERPRETIVE STATEMENT ON THE THEME (~350 words, first person)
Tell us how red lives in this work — and why.Which red, or reds, did you reach for — a pale blush, a bold cadmium, a deep crimson, an earthen red?
What is the color carrying here: an emotion, a symbol, a memory, a material fact?
Does red dominate the piece, or punctuate it?
Is it the subject, the mood, or the medium itself?
Are you working with red as pigment and surface, as cultural or political symbol, as light, or as feeling?
FOR EACH WORK SUBMITTED, WE’LL NEED THE FOLLOWING:
High-Resolution Image
We recommend at least 300 dpi. Absolutely No watermarks. Max File Size is 10 MB.
Ideally, we prefer a file naming convention of FirstName-LastName_Title-of-Piece.Title
Medium
Be specific, include the surface/substrate.
Elaborate what is included in “Mixed Media”. Selecting from submitted images is difficult. And self-leveling: Almost all work looks better in person. It’s why art is a living art. So do yourself a favor, be specific. We will be using this to information to understand what we are seeing in the images.Dimensions — with and without frame.
Please be sure to choose Wall-Hung, Wall-Hung Sculpture or “Table-Top” Sculpture.
We ask that you only list depth for sculptural objects.
Also, please ONLY choose that it is framed if it is in a frame, and you know the exact measurements. Guessing will actually create more work upon check-in. If in doubt, choose “Will be framed if accepted into this show”.Price
Edition information
All editioned works must carry edition markings, so please ensure you identify this edition information for each piece.Connection to the theme
This can be the specific red or reds you used, a symbol, an emotion, a story, a material, or any thread that ties the work to the theme.
SAVING YOUR PROGRESS
We know that this is a lot of information, so you can save your progress at any time and return to finish later.
We also recommend holding onto your saved link — if we need to troubleshoot together, sharing it makes the process much smoother.To Save Your Progress, do the following:
Click the Save button on the bottom of any form page at any point.
JotForm will generate a unique link to your in-progress submission.
You can copy or bookmark it, but also if you’ve already entered an email, it should also send you an email with this link.
Once you create the link, you can return to that link at any time before the submission deadline to pick up exactly where you left off or to make updates before you submit the form.
If you have an issue, please include this link when you contact us. Again, sharing your saved link helps us find and assist you quickly.
INFO THAT’S HELPFUL IF YOU ARE ACCEPTED.
“FOR SALE” POLICY
We are an unabashed “for sale” artwork boutique.
All work shown at Powell Lane Arts must be for sale.
If we have a buyer for your work, they may take work immediately, schedule pickup, or request shipping. This means sold work may come off the wall during the exhibition. We prioritize making this as easy as possible for any buyer.
This also means, we understand that sometimes a piece sells before delivery. If that happens, please let us know so we can remove it from our expected inventory list. We are always happy for artists when work sells — we simply cannot display work that is no longer available.ACCEPTANCE POLICY
Selections are made based on the specific works submitted.
No substitutions will be accepted once selections are finalized.
Accepted works must remain available for the full duration of the exhibition.
We aim to notify artists promptly to avoid conflicts with other opportunities.
The following presentation standards apply to accepted works and will be verified at delivery:Works on Canvas or Panel or Similar Surfaces
Edges must be cleanly finished or framed.
No raw or exposed edges.Works on Paper
Photography, prints, watercolor, and similar works must be framed under glass with no exposed glass edges
No clip frames.All Wall-Hung Work
Must be properly wired with D-Hooks and Braided Stainless Steel Wire or equivalent.
Sawtooth Hardware may be accepted on a case-by-case basis, and will need to be approved prior to the delivery appointment.
GALLERY COMMISSION
Gallery Commission is 40% on all sales.